Metal Bulletin’s price assessment for Egyptian billet imports was $415-430 on Thursday, up from $405-410 in the previous week, while import prices in the UAE were $410-415, from $390-398 – all on a per tonne cfr basis.

In Latin America, buyers were struggling to secure billet volumes, but continued high prices were an obstacle. In South and Central America, bids were heard around $410-420 per tonne fob, with at least one deal being closed.

“With China and Ukraine largely out of the market, buyers have very few options left, such as Iran and Russia,” a source said.

Vlada Novokreshchenova in Dnepr and Suresh Nair in Mumbai contributed to this report.

[The table that was originally published in this article had the February 27 assessment for South East Asia import prices for billet. This has been updated with the March 6 assessment.]